Introduction

This article introduces an application to consume RSS feed from the Internet.

Background (optional)

I used to use stylesheet to convert RSS feed into web page and then click link to get the latest articles. I also played a couple of Feed Readers or News Aggregator software, some crashed from time to time, others consume a lot of memory after running a while and they are not free. So I decided to write my own reader, here it is: AgileReader.

Using the application

I quickly wrote this application and tested it with 15 feeds or so, it works fine and can totally replace my existing stylesheet functions. Here is how to use it:

Double click in the left tree to refresh that feed (subscription).

Click or select a different group in the left tree to switch to a different subscription.

Double click in the right list view to read that article. Corresponding article will be marked as read.

Select a subscription in the left tree and click "Del" key to delete subscription.

Select a list of articles in the right list view and click "Del" key to delete selected articles from the database.

Points of Interest

XML Download and Parsing algorithm.

ADO operation with MS Access Repository.

History

This application is totally free. There are several FeedReaders or NewsAggregators available on the internet, some of them charges $20 dollars or so, this one is absolutely free. If you are interested in other software from my company, please go to AgileInfoSoftware.com. By the way, we are specialized in Database Management and Data Integration software.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

Comments and Discussions

I create two project , which is MFC app(readdll) and MFC DLL(rss7.dll). readdll just pass the xml link to rss7. And then the rss7 just download the xml and then load it into IXMLDOMDocument. Just same as you done. Then compile is ok , but runtime error.

hello!!
I saw your code it's really excellent but can't we have popups when there is some new addition on the site rather than refreshing it manually and can't we customize as we've in sharpreader. I wanted to know how to have popups actually I am also trying to implement rss reader just like sharpreader but i dont have .NET so have to implement using visual studio or ASP

saw some of those feeds in the list; they look interresting. So I wanted to find what their URL were. As far as I can tell your app doesn't allow you to see the properties of a feed - edit its url for example. This is a bit of pain really.

I think it's a great app for a starter. I am addicted to SharpReader, but your app is so much faster that I am considering a change.

I have a couple questions and suggestions.

you name it a Rss reader, but it seems to always open web pages (out of the permalinks). I think that, while it's desirable, you could gain adoption if instead you read and repurposed the xml description, and provide a link to the actual permalink is the user wants it optionally. Don't forget that Rss feeds are so much greater than web pages exactly because of the ad-less nature of xml.

Sorting of date does not work.

How can someone attach a stylesheet?

I think in just a matter of days the app could be made much more useable : why should the user double-click on items to read those? Why isn't there refreshing icons? Why isn't there an edit-box showing the current rss feed (which also lets the user pastee another)? Could it support the .opml file format to retrieve subscriptions from other aggregators (what are the .fre files)?

Well, you get the idea. I am very much talking about the useability from the stand view of SharpReader.